Time Travel Never Ends Well
by TheonySill
Summary: Howard Stark appears in a SHIELD interrogation room and they call Tony to talk to him. That goes as well as anyone would imagine, which is to say, not at all.
1. Chapter 1

Tony was in the middle of a new project for Stark Industries for more efficient medical screenings in emergency rooms. He had been working on it for about 6 hours and was starting to get a bit drowsy. The particulars of it would be hashed out later, but he had an _almost_ working board had been getting a bit antsy lately and kept hounding him for new schematics.

Although Pepper handled a lot of the inner business runnings, he still had to go to meetings, do a lot of financials and paperwork, and invent new things for the board. They asked about every two months or so. He had a couple of years of inventions backlogged that he would give them, but they still needed to be kept up to date with recent tech.

The model and schematics were due for the next board meeting, which was in 2 days. Finishing it wouldn't take that long, but he wanted to make sure that it wouldn't malfunction before he demoed it in front of the board. After he finished that, he had 4 other critical projects to do. Between the workload of SI, Shield, the Avengers, and his own personal projects, Tony was getting behind on sleep. He was fine for now, though he was just about killing his system with coffee. Sleep was going to be necessary eventually, but he had too much to do before then. Hopefully, nothing else got added on.

As if on command, the phone rang. He told JARVIS to pause his music and took a quick glance at the name before answering. "My dearest one-eyed pirate, what can I do for you?"

Tony could almost see the eye roll. "Look, Stark, I don't have time for your goddamn games. There's a situation that needs your attention, so get your ass over here now." Fury's voice was controlled, but Tony could detect a note of tension underneath.

Slightly curious now, Tony drawled. "I'm a very busy man, Fury, it's gonna take more than a broken computer to get a space in my schedule." It wasn't a lie, his work was piling up by the day and if he dawdled too long Pepper was definitely going to yell at him, but he did have a little leeway.

"Whatever you're working on can wait." Fury snapped before he hung up.

"Actually, it can't," Tony muttered to himself. He set his phone down before looking over the mostly made project. JARVIS' voice came overhead, "Should I shut down the systems, Sir?" He rubbed his eyes tiredly and decided he would finish the model before he left and would test it later.

"Not yet, J, we're going to let him stew for a bit."

"How very thoughtful of you, Sir," JARVIS said amusedly and resumed the music.

"Nice of you to finally show up." Fury scowled at him when Tony entered the room. He fought off the urge to rub his temples, there was a serious headache brewing. Did the director really think at this was his only responsibility? Nevertheless, he smirked.

"Well, I'm here now," Tony said as he sat down in the closest chair and leaned back. "So, what exactly is this 'situation'?" He noted the expressions around the room quickly. Rogers looked shocked and a bit pale, Natasha was tense and was watching him closely, Barton didn't look like he cared, and Bruce's face was hidden as he was working calculations.

Rogers glanced at Fury, "You haven't told him?"

Tony lost his playful appearance at once. "Told me what?" The pain in his head mounted up a notch.

"We found Howard Stark in an interrogation room yesterday." His heart skipped a beat and he stilled minutely, too small for the others to notice. It felt like a rug had been pulled out from under him while he was already drunk and dizzy, and he was left trying to catch himself on a nearby table. His father was here? That was impossible. If there was a way, Tony would have gotten rid of it a long time ago.

"I'm sorry, _what?_ " Tony raised his eyebrow. "I must have heard you wrong-"

"You heard right, Stark." Fury interrupted with a glare. "Now, are you going to throw a fit or make yourself useful?"

Tony shook his head in disbelief. "So my father just appears in a room and you don't think it's a trap or that, maybe, it's not even him? And why were they told before I was?" He gestured at the team indignantly.

"You were late." Fury deadpanned. "If you want to be kept in the know, you should get here on time."

Tony rolled his eyes. "Some of us have jobs that don't entail as much free time as you want. Are you sure that it's him?" He asked again.

"They already did the tests, it's Howard Stark." This time it was Bruce that replied. He looked up from his calculations to watch what was going on.

Tony let out a sigh. He brought up his hand to pinch at the bridge of his nose. It didn't alleviate the headache at all. After a moment, he asked abruptly, "So why am I here?"

Moments passed, then Natasha finally spoke up. "We thought he'd appreciate a familiar face." The twist of her lips showed that she didn't agree, but chose to answer anyway. She looked at him regretfully but didn't falter.

She's been openly staring at him for a while now, it was more than a little weird if you asked him. It was almost like she was _concerned_ about him or something. He looked away.

"I haven't seen him since I was seventeen, he probably won't recognize me. If you wanted someone familiar you should have Cap go in." His tone took on a bitter edge.

Barton cut in, "We can't send Steve in until we know what your father knows. That's where you come in. He's most likely to talk to you." Tony was about to tell him how wrong he was when someone else spoke.

Rogers sighed wistfully. "Most of us would love to talk to a parent again, at least you have the chance to. Your father was a great man, Tony, you must miss him." He could see Rogers' sincerity in the statement and his hope that he would be able to talk to Howard. There was an overwhelming sense of bitterness growing inside Tony. Why did _he_ get the best side of Howard when all Tony got was disappointment and anger?

His irritation was making him shorter with the team than normal, but he couldn't care less at the moment. "I'd say that I appreciated the effort, but honestly, I don't know why in the hell you'd think that I want to see my dad."

"Stark!" Fury barked. "That's enough. We need the intel so you are going in, whether you want to or not."

Tony stifled his annoyance and glowered at the director. "Since you asked so nicely." This was going to be an even longer day than he thought.


	2. Chapter 2

**Wow, okay. Hi guys. So I suck at setting deadlines for myself and actually sticking to them. I'm so sorry. I know this is like a year and a half late. But hey! At least there's a second chapter to this one (unlike my other story). So I actually split this chapter in two, not because it was long, but because I wanted to actually get you guys something, if you're even still reading this. Yeah, anyway, I'm sorry.**

As soon as everyone else went into the viewing room Natasha turned to him and quietly asked, "How are you?" Tony opened his mouth to reply but she interrupted him. "Don't say 'you're fine', we both know you aren't." She narrowed her eyes at him.

Tony studied her for a second before answering. "I have a headache. Nothing I can't handle." He was reluctant to say that much, but he knew she would be able to tell if he lied.

Natasha nodded. "If you're sure." She turned to follow the others and said out of the corner of her mouth, "Let someone know when it's too much."

Although it did apply, he got the feeling that she wasn't talking about his headache anymore. "It's so sweet to know you care."

She glanced back at him, hearing the sarcastic tone, and raised her eyebrows. "Someone has to." She walked into the viewing room and left him staring at her from the hallway. He shook off her strange behavior, he would think over it later. Taking a deep breath, he steeled his nerves and reached for the door handle.

When Tony entered the room, the first thing he heard was: "I'm glad someone finally showed up! I've been waiting in here for hours." Fully inside the room, Tony surveyed his father and noted that he wasn't wearing any handcuffs. Tony scoffed. As if Howard needed a weapon to do any damage. On the table in front of him was an empty glass. "And if you wouldn't mind, I'm dying for a refill of scotch."

Sitting down opposite the man, Tony snorted and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, that's not going to happen." Once he got his hands on alcohol he was about as compliant as a Dum-E with a fire extinguisher. It was too late for that, but he wasn't going to add to it.

"Fine. Who're you, then?" The other man shot him a dark look, and his foot started tapping on the floor. The rhythm beat itself into Tony's head, amplifying his migraine.

"You don't recognize me?" Tony raised his eyebrows, internally screaming he was right. Suck it, Fury.

"I'm happy to say I don't."

"I'm so hurt, dad."

His face screwed up and distaste colored his lips. "Anthony?"

Tony smiled thinly. It was a joke to think Howard would be happy to see him.

"How-"

"Are you here?" He pushed past any questions Howard had. "We don't know. They were hoping that our 'familial bond' would draw it out of you." Tony rolled his eyes. "So, you want to shed any light on that?"

Howard ignored him and said "You haven't changed a bit, aside from your appearance. You're just as frustrating as you used to be."

"And you're just as much of an asshole as I remember." At least Howard was consistent. The man scowled.

"Could you at least make an effort to use the manners your mother and I taught you?"

"I have no recollection of that ever happening. And even if it did, I don't have to- you're in interrogation." His father had made his childhood hell, this was his chance to return the favor. "Just answer the question: What is the last thing you remember?"

"I was conducting an experiment."

God, this was going to be this like pulling teeth. He resisted the urge to rub his temples. "An experiment on what?"

"Time travel, what else would it be?" Howard retorted sarcastically.

"What was the date?"

"Does it matter?"

"Well, they would like to know what day to send you back to, but that's up to you. They could send you to the stone age for all I care." If that happened, Tony would throw a party filled with all the booze he could buy.

"October 1985." His father scowled.

"See, that wasn't so hard." Tony smiled sardonically. He couldn't wait for this to be over.

Howard only glared harder.

Behind the one way glass, Natasha was smiling fondly. She knew of Tony's deep dislike for his father, so when SHIELD found Stark Sr. and wanted Tony to be the one asking questions, she knew this was going to happen.

"Why is he being so contrary?"

"We threw him to the wolves, Steve, how else should he react?" It was Bruce who spoke. Natasha turned to look at him and noticed how annoyed he looked. The scientist's arms were crossed and his eyebrows furrowed. For such a usually calm person, he was remarkably aggressive-looking at the moment.

Steve was taken aback. He frowned, "What do you mean?"

This time Clint interjected. "It's no secret that Stark has issues with his father. Most of us do, Steve. You and Thor probably had the best relationship with your parents."

Steve raised his eyebrows. "I grew up in the Depression."

"You at least had your mother, most of us had shitty parents." He was interrupted when Tony walked back into the room.

"Stark, what are you doing?" Fury growled.

"You asked me to get intel. I got it, job done, I left." He enunciated strongly and threw himself down on one of the chairs. He lounged over it, expression dark and his hands twitching as if fiddling with imaginary machinery.

Fury looked incredulously at him. "We still need the details of how he built the damn machine, Stark. You're not done yet."

"Well, I need a break. Someone else can go do it." Tony glared at the director, exhaustion creeping into his voice.

Fury growled. "Fine. Agent Romanov, get in there."

Natasha raised her eyebrows and leaned back in her chair. Folding her hands on the table, she answered, "I'll go in when the techs have accumulated the questions I need to ask. Until then, I have no reason to."

"Will someone just do as they're damn told today?" Fury threw his hands in the air and stalked out.


End file.
